Two supporters of President Donald Trump have been banned from Walmart for wearing Nazi face masks while shopping, according to Newsweek.
Footage of the pair, captured at a Walmart in Minnesota, went viral across social media on Saturday after first being posted to Facebook.
The woman who filmed the incident, Raphaela Mueller, confronted the couple with her partner, Benjamin Ruesch.
“You’re sick. You have an illness,” Ruesch said. “You can’t be an American and wear that mask. You cannot. We literally had a war about this.”
The masked woman can then be seen raising both her middle fingers to the camera before claiming that her appearance is in protest of mask mandates and former Vice President Joe Biden.
“If you vote for Biden, you’re going to be in Nazi Germany,” the woman says. “That’s what it’s going to be like.”
After being told by Mueller to remove her mask, the woman can be heard shouting “fuck you” before storming off. The woman’s husband continues to pay for their groceries.
In her Facebook post on the matter, Mueller states that she is originally from Germany and had family who resisted the Nazi party.
“I was born and raised in Germany, and I grew up hearing about my great-grandmother who fought in the underground against the first wave of Nazis in the 1930s and 40s,” Mueller wrote. “Let me make this abundantly clear once and for all – THE SWASTIKA IS A HATE SYMBOL AND YOU DO NOT FLY THE FLAG, YOU DO NOT WEAR THE SYMBOL ANYWHERE ON YOUR BODY, YOU DO NOT USE OR DEFEND THIS SYMBOL, EVER. END OF STORY.”
Police were eventually called to the store and, at the discretion of Walmart, issued trespass notices to the couple. The pair is barred from entering any Walmart location for at least one year.
A Walmart spokesperson revealed to Newsweek that the couple had been offered disposable face mask but refused.
“What happened at our store in Marshall, MN is unacceptable. We strive to provide a safe and comfortable shopping environment for all our customers and will not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment in any aspect of our business,” the spokesperson said. “We are asking everyone to wear face coverings when they enter our stores for their safety and the safety of others and it’s unfortunate that some individuals have taken this pandemic as an opportunity to create a distressing situation for customers and associates in our store.”
This article has been corrected.
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H/T Newsweek
